Software Engineer

Job Description UW Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central information technology organization for the University of Washington, responsible for strategic planning, oversight, and direction of the UWs IT infrastructure, resources, and services. UW-IT provides critical technology support to all three campuses, UW medical centers, and research operations around the world. UW-IT partners with the UW community to enable innovation, learning, discovery, and service. The IT Infrastructure division provides knowledgeable system design and administration, software engineering, and operational support for academic systems, administrative systems, and research computing. This position requires a team-oriented IT professional, experienced in designing, implementing, and maintaining complex applications, systems, and infrastructure at scale, with a focus on Web Hosting and Service management. Additionally, this position provides engineering support to several service teams, delivering complex IT services to the University and its extended community. The Infrastructure division of UW-IT delivers the technology infrastructure required to sustain UW as a leading research, teaching, learning, and medical institution. These technologies support the UWs core mission at all levels research, teaching, learning, healthcare, and the necessary underlying administrative and operational functions required to deliver these services. This Software Engineer position is responsible for maintaining custom software and integrating it with third party software or systems using APIs or ETL processes. This position will also be responsible for maintaining and working on our UW Shared Web Hosting environment. Sometimes the work will involve maintaining our teams internal systems to reduce technical debt or improving and optimizing our development and deployment workflows. In all cases this position will require evaluation, adaptation, integration, and management of sophisticated system, network, and application software to support the research, teaching, and administrative computing requirements of UW units. This position reduces the workload on other parts of the UW and beyond by removing repetitive work through workflow management, automation, and self-service. This position is responsible for software troubleshooting, development work, assisting with deployment, integration, and maintenance in a very complex, distributed environment serving hundreds of thousands of faculty, staff, students, patients, and community members. This position directly interacts with and supports the UW (including three campuses and UW Medicine), K-20, and Pacific Northwest Gigapop. The successful position holder will be an active team member and engage with other subject matter experts throughout the University and beyond. This position must be able to work with a diverse group of people who are both technical and non-technical. The incumbent must be able to work iteratively in both self-directed and team environments and often with people who are not co-located. Position Complexities: This position is responsible for troubleshooting and executing both business and technical components of established projects. Project work focuses on gaining efficiencies by documenting business processes; defining and designing process improvements; designing technical solutions based on requirements; and data modeling and metadata definition. Supporting, and helping to engineer, and improve software solutions is critical for this role as well as maintenance of current systems including our web hosting environment. This position will conduct research, analysis, configuration, and testing within a diverse team environment that includes participants from a broad range of campus units. The quality of work completed by this position will directly enhance the experience of UW-IT customers, as well as staff in UW-IT and across the University. The ability to foster relationships with others and to facilitate decision-making and consensus formation among diverse constituencies is critical. The SE will communicate and coordinate with diverse stakeholders and content providers, understand the workflows of the daily users, and the complex environment in which tools are used to accomplish work. This will require the SE to work within the multidisciplinary team environment while interacting productively with end-users, technical staff, and executive stakeholders. The ability to communicate effectively is critical. The SE will need to understand requirements and priorities, demonstrate an understanding of these priorities both verbally and in writing, and meet the information needs of stakeholders for effective decision making. The SE will also be responsible for regular communications to UW-IT and campus service management colleagues in the form of regular UW-IT publications, emails, and presentations to groups. Position Dimensions and Impact to the University: This position supports critical systems, services, and infrastructure that are integral to the operation of administrative, research, and teaching functions of the University. The quality of the work performed by this position has an effect on the quality of the IT platform services provided to the University and its extended community. These services support over 13K shared web hosting sites and another 16K UW websites and enable faculty, staff, and students to carry out the mission of the University. Position Responsibilities UW Shared Web Hosting support and maintenance (40%) Helps implement technical solutions, working with partners across the UW Supports technology solutions for various aspects of Web Hosting, Shell Environment, and MySQL technologies Serves as an engineer on the Service Team being accountable to the Service Owner Stays abreast of new and emerging trends Keeps senior leadership informed of related issues and developments and provides recommendations, options, and opinions Troubleshoots problems and resolves critical incidents Works with other UW units to identify solutions to related problems or needs Unix Engineering work (20%) Perform full-stack operational system support for Linux servers, Kubernetes clusters and other managed services (10%) Operate, extend and implement new supporting automation, tools and services. This includes deployment automation, configuration management systems, tool development. This may take the form of structured project work or individual tasks (10%). Help to evaluate and integrate software updates, security patches and improvements of all types across all platforms and infrastructure (10%). Participate in regular team and service meetings, project related meetings and cross-organizational technical forums (5%). Provide on-call support duties and after-hours support on rotation with other team members (5%) Skills: Help to support the Web Hosting Infrastructure LAMP stack expertise would be helpful PostgreSQL and MySQL knowledge as a plus. Strong Unix shell programming skills as necessary, and JavaScript as a bonus (see PHP above). Experience supporting large Web Hosting environments (10,000+ sites) Experience supporting database applications (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL) and system integrations via APIs Experience implementing and configuring software/cloud-based applications Demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional service while quickly adapting to new technologies SQL Server Experience Lead Responsibilities: This position is expected to support projects and assist with the service team in directing technical staff. In this capacity, this individual will need to be able to organize and effectively influence individuals without having direct supervisory authority. This position participates in the hiring process as a subject matter expert, reviews the work of others assigned to service and project teams, and provides input into performance evaluations. Position Qualifications Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or a related field or equivalent experience. Four years experience in software systems administration and support: designing, installing, configuring, and troubleshooting. Experience supporting a large (more than 10,000 sites) Web Hosting environment Experience with SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and/or MySQL and supporting database-backed applications Experience with the implementation and configuration of software packages and/or cloud-based applications Experience with APIs to understand and support system integrations Experience with coding shell scripts, such as PowerShell and JavaScript Demonstrated ability to lead service delivery teams, construct and manage projects, and consistently and effectively document status. Demonstrated ability to learn quickly and apply new technologies Demonstrated ability to deliver outstanding service to customers and peers. Desired: Experience with Linux Experience with Apache Experience with MySQL Experience with PHP Experience with PERL Experience with Ansible Experience with all aspects of the software development lifecycle. Experience administering WordPress including developing custom themes and plugins. Experience with ITSM processes, including Request Fulfillment, Incident Management, Problem Management, and Change Management as expressed through the ServiceNow product. Knowledge of accessibility compliance. Experience with SSRS. Prior experience in a research university or other academic institution. Working Conditions: Working conditions include open office environments. Minimum of 2 days in the Seattle office per week. Position participates in an on-call rotation and must be able to respond to outages during off-hours, including holidays and weekends. Other: A satisfactory outcome from a criminal history verification may be required prior to hire. Compensation, Benefits and Position Details Pay Range Minimum: $97,080.00 annual Pay Range Maximum: $157,764.00 annual Other Compensation: - Benefits: For information about benefits for this position, visit https://www.washington.edu/jobs/benefits-for-uw-staff/ Shift: First Shift (United States of America) Temporary or Regular? This is a regular position FTE (Full-Time Equivalent): 100.00% Union/Bargaining Unit: Not Applicable About the UW Working at the University of Washington provides a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees bring their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to building stronger minds and a healthier world. In return, they enjoy outstanding benefits, opportunities for professional growth and the chance to work in an environment known for its diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. Our Commitment The University of Washington is committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful and welcoming community for all. As an equal opportunity employer, the University considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, pregnancy, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, or veteran status consistent with UW Executive Order No. 81. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu. Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law. 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